• Petra Slatinšek
    Kinodvor

  • Slovenia

Film in School Curriculum Slovenia

How can film education be integrated into school curricula?

This input session will explore the process of integrating film education into the school curriculum in Slovenia. It will detail the steps taken by an advisory group to develop and implement a successful plan for the Ministry of Culture and in second step, Ministry of Education. The session aims to share valuable insights and strategies that might be applied to similar initiatives in other regions.

  • Rebecca Hartung
    PLUTO FILM Distribution Network

  • Europe

HOW I LEARNED TO FLY – A pan-European Distribution Campaign

What steps or innovative approaches could further increase the international reach and success of children’s films in today’s competitive market?

A case study on the children’s film HOW I LEARNED TO FLY by Radivoje Andrić (RS/HR/BG/SK 2022) from the perspective of the world sales company Pluto Film.
A key component of the film’s success has been its strategic presence at various film festivals. After its world premiere at BUFF in Sweden, the festival strategy was designed to focus on children’s film festivals to maximise exposure and appeal to its core audience. Already during its festival career, the film demonstrated its potential to travel beyond its home market and to connect with international audiences.
An integral part of the film’s journey was the application for MEDIA Films on the Move by the sales agent, planning a pan-European campaign involving multiple film distributors. Pluto Film structured this application precisely by using Audience Design as innovative methodology for bringing together the involved distributors at an early stage in collaborative online-workshops. Here, the target audiences in different territories were detailed, common release dates planned, and the marketing strategies and promotional activities across different countries coordinated.
Although the application wasn’t supported by MEDIA at the end, it helped with the detailed planning of the distribution campaign and provided evidence of the film’s potential to succeed on a European and global scale.
Overall, the info session highlights the approach required to bring a children’s film to global audiences, showcasing the importance of strategic planning, collaboration, and leveraging available resources to achieve success in the international film market.

  • Mariella Harpelunde Jensen
    BUSTER Film Festival

  • Denmark

Learnings from the most perfect Filmlaw for Children and Youth in the World

How can the European funding systems help sustain new Film talent, stories and reach the young audiences in local European languages mirroring the present, past and future of the young generations?

In 1997 Danish lawmakers revised the National Film Law. A groundbreaking feature in the new law was § 11. “At least 25% of the funding reserved for production of feature, short and documentary films – was to be reserved for films for children and youth”. The law still persists, but the media landscape has changed. How can we learn and build from this great political achievement on children’s cinema 27 years later?

  • Magda Wylężałek
    Young Horizon

  • Poland

Rebranding Young Horizons

How do you brand to appeal to a diverse audience of all ages?

After 9 years, the Kids Kino IFF was renamed Young Horizons IFF. A new name, identity, visual key and way of communicating have been created to reach a wider audience and new generations who have completely different expectations and no longer want to be identified as children.

  • Vejune Dudeniene
    Skalvija Cinema Center

  • Lithuania

Revitalizing Non-Commercial Family Film Viewership in Europe

What role can film festivals and distribution programs play in shaping the future of non-commercial family film viewing?

Non-commercial cinemas and film festivals in Europe face an aging audience and competition from multiplexes and streaming platforms. In Lithuania, family screenings are among the least attended, with high costs and competition leading regional cinemas to favor commercial content. This trend risks the disappearance of essential educational and artistic children’s films.

  • Tamara Kolarić
    University of Dublin

  • Europe

Thinking about (European) Audiences?

When working on a film project, what do you consider as the ‘metrics of success’ you’d want to achieve with it?

European co-productions are usually the most ambitious European films, combining multiple sources of financing and targeting both transnational audiences and critical acclaim. However, their success with audiences is often quite limited in terms of numbers.
Based on Tamara’s recently co-authored paper (2024) with colleague Petar Mitrić, she invites the Forum participants to consider why this is so—what are the sources of this audience challenge—and offer one approach to thinking about what can be done about it from the perspective of audience design. Tamara identifies, drawing primarily on literature in theatre studies, four different groups of target audiences for European co-productions—average spectators, emancipated spectators, spect-actors and emancipated spect-actors—and offers a framework for understanding what mobilizes these audience groups to seek out and view films. Tamara aims to demonstrate—together with the participants and building on their input—how the framework used could be applied to other films: what different film projects’ points of connecting with the audiences may be, as well as who their audiences could be, and how they might want to think about this during the production and distribution processes.
Tamara’s focus as a researcher is primarily on the social impact of cinema, its memory impact in particular; but intends to show how this is not at all separate from thinking about its potential audiences.

  • Jeanette Schjerva
    Film i Skåne

  • Sweden

  • Petra Rockenfeller
    AG Kino Gilde

  • Germany

Building networks for cinemas and lift up the young audience – a joint mission

How can we build a participant-driven network and what can we learn from similar networks?

In Sweden, during the pandemic a small group of commissioners in the swedish regions started to form a network for cinemas. The network children´s cinema was born. To broaden the film selection and to help them to level up their work around lifting and create increased participation for children and young people was their mission. Now, 58 cinemas strong, and with a tight relationship between the cinemas and the distributors the network are also including festivals and invites municipalities with interest in school cinema screenings to take part of some parts of the network. And we plan to be even bigger.
In Germany, several initiatives were implemented during the pandemic through the federal NEUSTART KULTUR programme, drawing on the structure of the three cinema associations.
Under the leadership of AG KINO Gilde, which supports 370 independent art-house cinemas and 40 distributors, three key projects for the future were launched: two CINEMA VISION conferences and several INNOVATION LABS, where cinemas and distributors worked together.
In addition, the JUNGES KINO initiative, led by the Municipal Cinema Association, focused on involving young cinema fans in film series and events. Over 33 cinemas developed projects within nine months, supported by film agents and grants of up to 4,000 euro. The initiative inspired more than 70 cinemas and fostered an ongoing exchange of ideas for young audiences.
The aim of these activities was to bring the film industry together to discuss and reform structures with new ideas. The result is increased cooperation and innovative approaches to film marketing at cinema level.